CFOs say tech talent is more important than ever—and are competing hard for it

I was in Houston last week to attend several sessions of the annual AfroTech Conference, created by Blavity, Inc., a digital media company founded by Morgan DeBaun, who is the CEO. The event connects Black tech professionals and students with major companies across industries for networking, career opportunities, and panel discussions on topics like AI and cybersecurity.

During a CFO discussion at AfroTech on Nov. 14 about the evolving role of finance in the digital age, the topic of talent came up.

“I’m competing with everybody else for tech talent,” said Maurice Kuykendoll, CFO of group insurance at Prudential Financial, a Fortune 500 company. Fintech people do need to have finance and actuarial skills, Kuykendoll said. “But our tools are moving so quickly, and the amount of data that we’re trying to wrangle in order to get the financial outcomes means that I’m often looking for people across both worlds, who’ve got tech skills and finance skills,” he said. 

Kuykendoll also makes it a point to communicate with young tech professionals at the company. “They teach me about what they were working on, what they’ve just learned,” he explained. And in turn, “I help them understand how the business actually makes money,” he added.

The CFO of retailer Everlane, Vince Adams, oversees a tech team and likewise believes that harnessing data to get important insights is critical. When it comes to AI applications, they have to make sure it’s a tool that will create value, he said.

“The worst thing that can happen, and I’ve seen this happen before, is we get excited about something, we bring it on, and then we have this tool that we ultimately did not use,” Adams said. Making finance teams more tech-savvy requires professional development opportunities and upskilling, he said. 

Whenever there is an AI investment discussion, Erika Troutman, VP and CFO for data management at Wells Fargo, a Fortune 500 company, said it’s her job to make sure it aligns with the overall company goals, and gauge whether it will increase efficiency over time. It’s important for tech professionals to have storytelling skills, “so that we can own that narrative for you and help with financial goals,” Toutman said. 

Today, finance professionals have some insight into tech, she said. “But 10 years ago or even seven years ago, we had no knowledge of tech,” she said. Toutman added that she was looking forward to talking with some of the tech talent at AfroTech.

According to CompTIA’s October report, finance and insurance are among the top five industries for tech job postings. As I walked around the exhibit hall during AfroTech, amid the booths of big tech companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia, along with Wells Fargo, other big banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, had a presence as well. 

It will be interesting to see how the financial services industry will attract tech talent who may have thought they’d build a career in Silicon Valley. 

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Upcoming event: Join us for our next Emerging CFO event, presented in partnership with Workday, on Nov. 20, 11 a.m. to noon ET. The topic is “Staying ahead in a hypercompetitive market.” In this virtual discussion, we will sit down with top CFOs who are taking bold risks to outpace their competitors, and investing in innovation and data-driven insights to lead their industries. Speakers will include Antonio Carlos Garcia, EVP and CFO of Embraer and Claire McDonough, CFO of Rivian. You can register for the event here.

Leaderboard

Erica Smith was promoted to CFO of Israeli security software giant CyberArk (Nasdaq: CYBR), effective Jan. 1. She will succeed Josh Siegel, who will transition into an advisory role after 13 years as CFO. Smith joined the company in 2015 and was appointed deputy CFO this year, forming part of a leadership team that oversaw a $1.6 billion acquisition of cybersecurity firm Venafi. Previously, she served as the company’s SVP of finance and investor relations, leading FP&A, investor relations, and ESG.

Anand Gandhi was appointed CFO of Eventbrite (NYSE: EB), a ticketing and marketing platform for live events, effective Nov. 19. He will succeed Lanny Baker, who has served as finance chief since joining the company in 2019 and will continue in the role of COO. Gandhi arrives from Viator, a subsidiary of TripAdvisor, where he was CFO. He previously held the same position at online learning platform Skillshare and worked in leadership roles at The Walt Disney Company, 21st Century Fox, Viacom, and Time. He began his career in investment banking at Morgan Stanley.

Big Deal

IBM has released a new report called “AI in Action.” The findings are based on a survey, conducted on behalf of the tech giant by Harris Poll, of 2,000 companies across the U.S., U.K., India, Japan and Germany.

Fifteen percent of businesses reported being far ahead of their peers when it comes to leveraging AI to maximize value across their business, which IBM refers to a “AI Leaders.” The remaining 85% of respondents were classified as “Learners.”

AI Leaders were more likely to report that their C-suite was fully aligned with IT leadership on what it would take to achieve AI maturity (72% vs. 36% of Learners). The research also found that AI Leaders were 80% more likely to invest in four use cases: customer experience, IT operations and automation, virtual assistants, and cybersecurity.

Going deeper

Does the U.S. budget deficit matter? Ira Kalish, chief global economist at Deloitte, examines whether the concerns voiced by several business leaders are warranted in the firm’s latest weekly global economic update. The answer, he says, is both yes and no. 

Overheard

“So apparently, when kids eat the fried chicken, they eat it with the mashed potato.”

—Joey Wat, CEO of Yum China said during the 2024 Fortune Global Forum. KFC China is one of the company’s many fast food brands including Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. Wat has sat for hours and watched customers eat. It’s led to the development of popular menu items.